Thursday, December 17, 2015

Have you ever been in rug school and there is someone who speaks whispers with authority on what should be done or what we are accomplishing as a class? Not the teacher mind you but a fellow student.

Before you know it we all think we should be doing what they suggested and we are off on a tangent instead of the straight path the teacher set down.

The person next to you can help you a great deal in rug school. They can also impede you or completely distract you. When you need to know what to do ask your teacher.

I like to be interrupted during students "turns" if your progress is being impeded. If I think you are taking advantage I'll tell you you'll have to wait or if the question will take more than 30 seconds to answer you will have to wait for the window when I move onto the next person.

Friday, December 11, 2015

We are in a sharing mood. This is our topic of the day today on The Welcome Mat.
We are continuing this conversation from yesterday about how to create these effects in wool. Due to some questions I've continued with more info on how to do this.

Please enjoy.

Here is what I wrote yesterday:

Today Juliana asked me:

"How would you hook/ dye this under painted look?"

Bunny Secrets - Rita Kirkman

I'm thinking she meant the background, but I see the rabbits have the same quality to their coats. Note: Juliana meant the rabbits it turns out

BUT the finer you cut these wools the less they can perform for you in this way.

We diminish the dyed effect with smaller cuts.

How would you hook or dye this effect? Note: we had several great suggestions

And Julianna if I've got hold of the wrong straw or am hareing off in the wrong direction please redirect me and this conversation to rights. I'll be away until tomorrow night and I look forward to your brilliant ideas!

And now today:

I thought I would try to explain an interesting event between wool we dye and how it looks hooked.

You've probably had the most perfect looking wool for what you wanted to hook, bricks, trees, grass, eyes, you name it!

I would need to prepare a least three, maybe 4 pieces of wool in the wandering pot or with marbelizing to get 4 values.

Each value would contain variants of the colours present, the yellow in the lightest value, the dull orange, bright blue, dull green and in some as they darken value - violet.

Once this dyeing is done it would be simple to just hook this up.

I agree a challenge would be a good idea.

But I want to tell you it needs to include hooking because that is the real way to prove the wool is viable.

Often wool for these effects is quite ugly on it's own.

In this rug:

I used marbelized wool for my flesh with a few other pieces of colours thrown in.

I had made partners of (sage green, tan, violet) ( orange , tan, sage green) to dye. This gave me 6 pieces of two sided wool that had one or the other colours more present. I used the warmest colours in the lighter areas and let the greenish ones be the middle areas and let violet shade.

It allowed me some big leeway for shading.

This was just stuff I had on the shelf. But I do have a very wide range of goods to hook with because I need a wide range of values, temperatures, saturations in each colour.

Don't try to make or buy one piece of wool that "does the job", it rarely functions well.

Make smooth transitions in your colour work, let one colour bridge all sections, it might darken or lighten, brighten or dull but it will hold all what you see together.

Can you find that colour in the rabbits?

One of the fun things we can do to get this "pastel effect" is let core show in our wool, you do this by having you water super hot with dye and wool present with an acidy dye bath, it will give a great effect on already colour wool of light to medium values. You can add two or more colours by waiting for the water to clear each time.

Note: This is the stuff that you can learn on the Mat on a daily basis, it is all archived and RICH with what you want to know to hook and grow as an artist. You can also ask me most anything and I'll do the best I can to aid you. $36 a year? How could you pass this up?

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Well, well, well, well, well.
This should be said with some tsking and slanted head wagging, negatively, to and fro, voice raising and lowering as needed.

Two good things on my hook something every day promise, I'm doing it, the hooking I mean.
And I'm being quite dutiful about it too.

But as you might notice I'm not posting about it.
Not once.
Until today.
You might wonder why.
Well, wonder away.
Wonder till your heart's content. Your guess is as good as mine.

All I can say is I'm walking about 5 miles a day and at the end of the day I just can't roll downstairs to the studio so easily to photo my project nor can I sit long at the computer, there is danger I'll seize up.
Here is the photos I've nabbed, some days I just pull a few loops others I hook quite a bit.

The leaf

the outline

The ground

Come on by to the WandaWorks Open House to check on my progress on Saturday December 12, 10 til 2

Monday, November 23, 2015

Traditionally in the month of November I like to ignore it or kick it's ass with some creativity. This is even a class you can take as part of your Welcome Mat subscription fee. It's worth $36 just to get through November or any dark time in your creative life.

Traditionally in the month of December I try to make something every day.
I need to make things.
Like I need to breathe.

This practice helps while away the dismal days of Northern Hemisphere living in early winter.
All the Vitamin D in the world cannot substitute for making.

Last year I was awfully involved in recovery, every move I made was clumsy and The Majic Carpet Dye Company needed constant tending. So I had a pass on Make Something Every Day for 2014.

Brainstorms were apparently drifting elsewhere this fall.
And I had a deep lack of clever precipitation.

On Saturday night the heavens opened up with big fat flakes of snow.
And with it came some big fat ideas. I hope they don't turn out to be flakey.

I plan to hook something every day in December, not something in totality, but parts of things which I may finish by Dec 31 or may not. I welcome your company as you try to hook every day.

Hooking can take a back seat in the flurry of activity that is this three ring circus I conduct.
This Hook Something Every Day will get me back to my frame.
I'm getting excited about my 2016 Exploratorium classes and will turn my hand as well as my mind to these colourful looks at the very close up or far away.

Why don't you stop by on Saturday, December 12? You can come between 10 until 2, I hope this is the first of many. You can see what I'm up to and get inspired wool for clever hooking, batts and interesting inclusions for spinning, hand dyed gorgeous yarns for the knitting, Majic Carpet Dyes and beautiful Wandawear items and you can also just sit and visit. Write me to subscribe to my newsletter list to be informed on all upcoming WandaWorks opportunities.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

When you throw down your hooked rug we will all know it's yours immediately.

This is easier to achieve than you think.

It takes action:

Sit down at your frame every day, show up.

Hook just as you please. No apologies for your winsome ways.

Do small studies and sketches.

Critique each day. Is it as beautiful as you imagined?

Correct it

Repeat.

After about a month of two of this steady work you will see some important movement towards your style.

You will also have gorgeous studies you can develop into larger works whenever you like.

Avoidance:

Things you probably shouldn't do during this period:

take your work to be gazed upon and commented on by other hookers unless you are thick skinned

ask for a critique

take hooking classes

use somebody else's pattern

look a lot at others rugs, it doesn't matter what they've made.

Nurturing

Things you can do during this period:

Observe closely that which you think about with pleasure and kindles your heart

Take in inspirational things that create vivid spark in your soul

Have plenty of experiences and love flowing in and out

Free yourself from your beliefs that impede what you want, cut ties, burn bridges, stand erect and alone if you must

Go towards the people and places that support you

Have kindness and acceptance for the style in you and how it emerges

Remind yourself of your incredible potential every 1/4 of the day - Morning, Noon, Evening, Night

Have perseverance, even the ugliest of things we make work towards our beautiful

Accept, respond lovingly, continue to work EVERY DAY

What will be possible?

Terrifyingly exciting isn't it?

But oh so welcome.

What do you think? Yay or nay?

Sometimes these Tuesday tips are practical; how to finish a round hooked object say or deep thinking, why do we make the same things or mistakes over and over or quirky but they are just one of our daily informational, inspirational and interesting columns on The Welcome Mat. Join us today right here!

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Here I am at the shore of Lake Huron near the Fishing Islands. I love the wonderful, beautiful place I live and consequently I've hooked many landscapes. I've learned so much over time and now I'd like to share this with you.

I hope you are eager to dive into a new topic in this summer's lab study. We will dive into landscapes and how to make them more artistic. What do we need to consider and how can we get some "feeling" into our pieces? And this lab is everything you are looking for to develop your skills doing ANY hooking where you require depth including portraits!

I'll be providing a new beautiful pattern, great visuals, help with fabrics and maybe even dyeing aid if needed, I will be interacting with you as though we were together. You can use your own fabrics or order some of mine. Just let me know what you'd like. I encourage the use of many "kinds of stuff" to hook with in this lab.

The project will not be large, about 9 X13" but it can be enlarged if you wish. The concepts are easy and so fruitful!

At $100, this lab is a fraction of going to rug school and you can work in your pyjamas and anytime during the day or night.

Our Lab will commence August 5th! You will have 3 months access to class with the bulk of information being presented in the first month but I will attend to you during all three months.